✦ Chapter 33 ✦
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Philip stepped into Elian's room as though entering sacred ground. The air was heavy with lingering lavender and peppermint, dulled now, softened into something faint and tired. His gaze went first to the bed.
Elian lay motionless beneath pale sheets, lashes resting against colorless cheeks, white hair fanned across the pillow like ink spilled slowly into water. He looked fragile in sleep, as though the slightest sound might shatter him. Philip's chest tightened before his eyes shifted to the other presence in the room.
Esper sat beside the bed, unmoving.
Crimson eyes stared out the tall window, fixed on nothing and everything all at once. The dying light of evening washed over his sharp features but failed to warm them; his expression was distant, cold, carved from stone. He looked like someone standing at the edge of a memory he refused to name.
"Is there something you need, Philip?" Esper asked at last.
